Carnegie Mellon University: Machine Learning Tool Helps Human Rights Workers Seek Justice. “Interdisciplinary researchers at CMU created a tool that can scan thousands of hours of multimedia in a matter of minutes. It can help human rights practitioners build cases against war criminals.”
evidence
Phys .org: Here’s what police know about digital evidence
Phys .org: Here’s what police know about digital evidence. “In today’s criminal justice system, a Play Station and iPhone are just as important pieces of evidence as eyewitness accounts. Yet, there isn’t a strong understanding as to how police officers identify digital evidence—everything from a laptop to a smart television—in the field.”
BBC: Florida cops hope Alexa can solve bizarre spear murder case
BBC: Florida cops hope Alexa can solve bizarre spear murder case. “Florida police investigating the bizarre death of a woman during a domestic row have obtained audio from two Amazon Echo devices. Silvia Galva, 32, was impaled by a spear-tipped bed post in a struggle with her boyfriend, Adam Reechard Crespo, at their Hallandale Beach home.”
Lexology: Time travel in the Federal Court of Australia – WayBack Machine print-outs admissible* as evidence
Lexology: Time travel in the Federal Court of Australia – WayBack Machine print-outs admissible* as evidence. “On this basis, there would now seem to be some prospect of getting print-outs of web pages obtained via the WayBack Machine into evidence where: (a) the web pages belong to or are otherwise controlled by a party to the proceedings; and (b) discovery has been sought from that other party and not yielded the content of the web pages.”
New York Times: French Rock Star’s Instagram Defeats His Widow in Inheritance Battle
New York Times: French Rock Star’s Instagram Defeats His Widow in Inheritance Battle. “Johnny Hallyday, known as the French Elvis, built his six-decade show business career on old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll, but he also kept up with the times technologically. From 2012, his Instagram account shared a canny mixture of the personal and the professional, promoting his tours, his albums and his image as one of France’s most enduring stars. And on Tuesday, it helped two of his children defeat his widow in the first stage of a legal battle over an inheritance that the French news media values at tens of millions of dollars.”
OSCE: Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop digital archive of evidence brought in war crimes cases
Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe: Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop digital archive of evidence brought in war crimes cases. “The Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bruce G. Berton, the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH, Milan Tegeltija, and the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Gordana Tadić, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support the development of a digital archive of all evidence pertaining to war crimes cases in the possession of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.”
The Verge: Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared
The Verge: Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared. “Bay Area prosecutors were trying to prove that a man arrested during a prostitution sting was guilty of pimping charges, and among the evidence was a series of Instagram DMs he’d allegedly sent to a woman. One read: ‘Teamwork make the dream work’ with high heels and money bag emoji placed at the end. Prosecutors said the message implied a working relationship between the two of them. The defendant said it could mean he was trying to strike up a romantic relationship. Who was right?”
CNN: Internal documents Facebook has fought to keep private obtained by UK Parliament
CNN: Internal documents Facebook has fought to keep private obtained by UK Parliament. “The British Parliament has obtained a set of internal Facebook documents the social media giant has fought for months to stop from being made public, according to Facebook and a lawyer involved in a suit against the company.”
Engadget: Judge tells Amazon to provide Echo recordings in double homicide trial
Engadget: Judge tells Amazon to provide Echo recordings in double homicide trial. “Prosecutors are once again hoping that smart speaker data could be the key to securing a murder conviction. A New Hampshire judge has ordered Amazon to provide recordings from an Echo speaker between January 27th, 2017 and January 29th, 2017 (plus info identifying paired smartphones) to aid in investigating a double homicide case. The court decided there was probable cause to believe the speaker might have captured audio of the murders and their aftermath.”
EurekAlert: Can we trust digital forensic evidence?
EurekAlert: Can we trust digital forensic evidence? . “Digital forensics is the recovery and investigation of digital devices and digital materials, often related to serious crimes, such as terrorism and murder, but also more localised issues within the workplace such as employee misconduct and cyber bullying.New research at the University of York examining digital forensic laboratories in England and Wales has shown that evidence of the accuracy of digital forensic methods may be missing from the regulatory framework.”
Pace DM: Court Allows Admissions of Wayback Machine Screenshots as Evidence
Pace DM: Court Allows Admissions of Wayback Machine Screenshots as Evidence. “The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a ruling by the lower court, admitting screenshots from the Internet Archive – Wayback Machine (U.S. v. Gasperini, July 2, 2018).”
Quartz: Facebook content is convenient evidence for prosecutors, but not for defendants
Quartz: Facebook content is convenient evidence for prosecutors, but not for defendants. “When prosecutors want to get a Facebook user’s private posts or direct messages as evidence, they have to request it from the company through a warrant or subpoena. In most cases, Facebook will grant the information. But this sort of access is not given to criminal defendants.”
JD Supra: Pennsylvania Superior Court Adopts New Standard for Social Media Evidence
JD Supra: Pennsylvania Superior Court Adopts New Standard for Social Media Evidence. “In Commonwealth v. Mangel, 2018 WL 1322179 (March 15, 2018), the Pennsylvania Superior Court adopted a standard for authenticating social media posts under Pennsylvania Rule of Evidence 901. The Court held that ‘the proponent of social media evidence must present direct or circumstantial evidence that tends to corroborate the identity of the author of the communication in question, such as testimony from the person who sent or received the communication, or contextual clues in the communication tending to reveal the identity of the sender.'”
Legal Intelligencer: Superior Court Adopts Standard for Authenticating Social Media Posts
Legal Intelligencer: Superior Court Adopts Standard for Authenticating Social Media Posts. “Noting how easily social networking accounts can be faked or hacked, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled in a case of first impression that social media posts are inadmissible in criminal cases unless prosecutors can present evidence of who actually authored them.”
BBC News: Rape conviction quashed over new Facebook evidence
BBC News: Rape conviction quashed over new Facebook evidence. “A man jailed for rape four years ago has had his conviction overturned after new Facebook evidence emerged. Danny Kay’s sentence was quashed by the Court of Appeal after deleted messages were found in an archived folder backing his version of events.”
